1. Adjective
forms

The
table below lists the main families of adjectives in French; while
there are certain exceptions that need to be learned individually, the
groups below illustrate how to decline most French adjectives in their
different forms. Nonetheless, given the number of exceptions, it is
advisable to check a new adjective you learn, using a good dictionary.

2. Adjective position
in French

2.1.
Adjectives that come before the
noun:

However any of these nouns can occasionally be placed after the noun if
context or a grouping of adjectives requires it.

2.2 Adjectives that sometimes come
before the noun,

depending
on context long,
court, double

2.3. A few adjectives vary their position
according to different
meanings:

The
adjective "ancien"
normally comes before the noun when it means "former", and after
it when it means "ancient".
The adjective "certain"
normally comes before the noun when it means "particular", and
after it when it means "sure".
The adjective "même"
normally comes before the noun when it means "same", and after it
when it means "very same".
The adjective "pauvre"
normally comes before the noun when it means "unfortunate", and
after it when it means "not
rich".
The adjective "propre"
comes before the noun when it means "own", and after it
when it means "clean".

2.4. Other adjectives follow the
noun. These include adjectives of
colour and of nationality

Examples:A beautiful and very intelligent young
lady . -
Une
belle jeune dame très intélligente.
There was a long queue of cars. Il
y avait une longue file de voitures. A long and difficult day. Une
journée longue et difficile. A
former president of the Ancient History Society Un
ancien président de la Société
d'histoire ancienne.
He started in the morning and finished the very same day Il
a commencé le matin et terminé le jour
même.. A popular bilingual dictionary Un
dictionnaire bilingue populaire. A flexible metal frame Un
cadre métallique flexible. It's my own cat, and he sleeps in a
clean basket C'est
mon propre chat, et il couche dans un panier propre..

3. Adjective order

Generally
speaking, adjective order in French and adjective order in English
follow similar principles. The closer an adjective comes to a noun in
English, the closer it will come in French.

Thus, in a simple
world where all adjectives in English came before the noun, and all
French adjectives came after the noun, the order of adjectives in
French would be the mirror image of the order of the equivalent
adjectives in an English sentence .

Sadly the world is not as
simple as this, and as we have seen adjectives in French often come
before the noun. Yet the principle remains valid. When
organising
three or four adjectives round a noun in French, try and keep the same
relationship of proximity as in English, even though some of the
adjectives may go before the noun and others after it.

In both English and French the general rule is that the adjectives
closest to a noun express its most fundamental
qualities. In some cases, this is more evident in French than in
English. For example, in French one could say, of a car...C'est
une voiture allemande bleue or C'est
une voiture bleue allemande
In the first expression the speaker probably
implies a German car
(i.e. made in Germany) that happens to be blue... ,
or possibly though less probably a German-registered car of any make.
In the second, we have a blue
car that happens to be German, probably a
car with German plates rather than a German make of vehicle.

Note that when two adjectives A & B are linked by "et ", they have an
equal value in terms of required proximity, so can often be placed
either in the order AB or in the order BA.

4. Comparison
of adjectives

Comparative forms and superlative forms of adjectives in French are not
difficult to master; however the small difference between the
comparative form and the superlative form can sometimes cause confusion.
Other than in a few exceptional cases, the
comparative form of an adjective in French is formed by adding plus
in front of the adjective.
The superlative form is made by adding
le plus (or la
plus or
les plus, acccording to context) .
Adjectives that normally precede the noun are often placed after it
when used in the superlative form with le
plus.

Qualitative adjectives can be modified by adverbs of degree or
manner.
The most common of these are the adverbs or adverb phrases of degree très
(very),
assez (rather,
quite), plutôt
(rather),
peu (little,
not very) ,
trop (too),
and
trop peu (not...enough),
de plus en plus (increasingly),
de moins en moins (decreasingly).
Exceptionally, adjectives can be modified by a noun of degree: un
peu.
Many other adverbs, themselves derived from adjectives, can be used to
modify adjectives. Examples: généralement
(generally),
habituellement (usually),
constamment (constantly),
extrèmement (extremely),
particulièrement (particularly),
hautement
(highly),
sérieusement(seriously)
and many more.

However
French does not use adverbs to modify nouns as easily as English does.
For example, a large number of present participles in English can be
made into adverbs to modify nouns; frustratingly,
lovingly, worryingly, disgustingly, boringly, shockingly, etc....
French does not have many participial adverbs of this sort,
so other forms of expression are needed. See example 5 below